Houdini Apprentice $99

Mongrelman

Pretty nice it seems (though I've never used the program). Can render up to HD resolution and no watermarks.

http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1002

conte

sorry, is that some kind of 3d app?

Ryno

Houdini was a niche high end (back when there was such a thing) 3d app that used to sell for tens of thousands of dollars. It looks like Houdini Master is now about 8 grand. No idea what kind of functionality it offers.

aesir

Houdini is amazing, but incredibly hard to learn. I thought apprentice was free though? It was free when I first got it.

fuck it confused the shit outta me back then. Might try and learn it again. I hear film guys with houdini knowlege get paid a lot.

Mongrelman

It seems that here is the free apprentice version, which has things like limited resolution for renders and watermarks etc. and the $99 version doesn't have those. I think it's all the features but not for commercial work <shrug>.

Might have a dig through some video tutorials at some point and see if I want to try this or not. I hear it's great for particles.

aesir

Lupus, its mainly great for big ass projects with lots of people. For smaller one man projects, I prefer other 3d programs.

But they have updated the UI. Maybe its better now.

3dbuzz is a great place for houdini tuts btw.

Joao Sapiro

i believe houdini was used alot in ffx cutscenes right ?

MikeF

Houdini is used a lot even by smaller studios. One of my 3d teachers working on fight club used only Houdini for the entire sculpture/giant ball crashing through stuff scene, apparently. And that team only consisted of 2-3 guys

pliang

I looked into a long time ago and back in October there was a fair for introducing the new Houdini software release...mainly for particle effects.

They also claimed to have used it for the Sandman scene in Spiderman 3.